Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese Team Up for Rolling Thunder Film

Fourteen years after the director chronicled Dylan's switch from folk to rock with No Direction Home, he's making a new documentary about the Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan's wild ride of a tour from 1975. The movie will air on Netflix sometime this year.

Variety broke the news, getting a synopsis from the network that reads, “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, Rolling Thunder is a one of a kind experience, from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese.”

Toward the end of 1975, Dylan took to the road with some old friends -- like Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Bob Neuwirth and Allen Ginsberg -- and a band featuring three other guitarists, including Mick Ronson, called Guam.

Along the way, the Rolling Thunder Revue picked up and dropped off other musicians, like Joni Mitchell and Ringo Starr. While it started out with the show's spontaneous nature yielding some of Dylan's best-ever live reviews, the second leg, which took place during spring 1976, petered out.

A film crew led by director Howard Alk recorded the proceedings, and it resulted in a TV special, the Hard Rain live album and, combined with interviews and a story by Dylan and playwright Sam Shepard, the critically reviled four-hour Renaldo and Clara movie.

Netflix confirmed that Dylan and many of those involved in the tour participated in the documentary, with Dylan's manager Jeff Rosen conducting the interviews. Variety also speculates a fall release could lead to a box set dedicated to the tour as part of Dylan's Bootleg Series. In 2002, the fifth volume of the acclaimed series centered on the trek with a two-disc set.